Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the stoner rock masterpiece KYUSS ‘Blues For The Red Sun’, Cherry Bar presents Matt Sonic & the High Times with Chappy (My Left Boot) performing the album live track-for-track with support from Battle Axe Howlers with a special show on Saturday 4 August.

We spoke to Matt Sonic from the High Times…

How important is Kyuss as a band?

Kyuss are completely invaluable to the landscape of heavy music as we know it today. i believe the band, through the well known 3 albums, changed heavy music forever. we all know that what today is commonly known as “Stoner Rock” began with the 70’s monster rock of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, but until Kyuss, a band hadn’t found the magical blend of absolute cinematic beauty, and heart pounding heaviness. i think, without their injection to heavy music in the early 90’s, we might have never found this important place in music.

Why is the ‘Blues For The Red Sun’ album important to you?

Blues for the Red Sun literally changed my life, and is still a major part of the way i view life now, through the vision of that record. The Green Machine / Thong Song single was the first CD i ever bought, through a recommendation of Hot Metal Magazine. I would sit in the dark and listen to the 2 songs over and over with my ear to the speaker. i couldn’t define the sound and would just absolutely revel in it’s mysteries. I then bought Blues for the Red Sun on the day of it’s release from an IPSWICH music store. it’s hard to explain, but it affected the way i walked, the way i talked and the way i looked at life. it was somewhere in the heavy beauty of that record that i started to exist.

You’re a singer why did you bring in Chappy for this?

John Garcia, and particularly his vocal performances on the Kyuss Records, is my favorite singer of all time. i’ve had arguments with people before, who call his singing too “Metal” or something. There is a fragility and infinity to his vocals that take the music of Kyuss exactly where you want to be. he’s the only man who could take you there. I can’t do this voice justice at all, and the only man in Melbourne who i could imagine touching this space is Chappy. he has the chops and the soul.

Will you be trying to do note for note replicas of the songs or re-interpretations or what?

Well we quickly learned that doing a note for note replica of the record is not only impossible, but unflattering. there are nuances and layering that are impossible to hear, as you nearly feel them rather then hear them, and we made an early decision to not try and unravel this magic. we will be doing the songs as we would play them. obviously all the part are there, the tunings and all the feels are totally the same, it’s just as we would play them, without treading on the magic.

Brant Bjork and the Kyuss band and Josh Homme at other times have all come in to party at Cherry Bar. Did this make it the logical place to host this special tribute?

Cherry Bar is a logical place to hold this for lots of reasons. Firstly, it the High Times’ spiritual home, where we love and are supported, so when we’re trying to pull of a project this massive for all of us, we want to do it where we are comfortable. and yeah, Cherry obviously has deep musical connections to all the members. recently, we were on tour with Fu Manchu, who of course as a brother band to Kyuss, and they described their Cherry gig as one of the high lights of their 25 year career. i couldn’t imagine holding this elsewhere.

How challenging is it to pay tribute to one of your personal favourite and one of the most influential records of your generation?

It was challenging to decide to do the shows. Making the decision was hard. learning the songs, rehearsing this record with your best friends, and anticipating how much fucking fun it will be to share the night with people, this is easy.

What can people expect from this Kyuss 20th celebration with the High Times?

A raw, heavy, emotion filled night, with more riffs then a series of Game of Thrones.

Kyuss ‘Blues For The Red Sun’ gets the High Times’ treatment

Saturday 4 August

Cherry Bar

Ticket $22

For more info and tickets go to: www.cherryrock.com.au